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I don't want to make this a long drawn out story, but the wife and I found a fire extinguisher Sunday a week ago laying alongside the roadway. We stopped, and I went to retreive it. Upon initial checkout, the thing looked fine, except fopr some scratches. The gage was fully intact and showed it to be in the geen and approx 195 to 200# pressure according to the gauge. It was a 5# dry chemical type. I carried it back to the pickup truck and got inside, and placed the extinguisher on my lap for a yet closer examination and to show the wife. I turned it over and the valve seperated from the cylinder. I had some teeth knocked out and a fracture of the upper jaw and cheek bone and busted lips and nose. I fiared out pretty darn good, as my wife caught the majority of the force by having the cylinder hit her on the side of her head just above the temple and behind the eye. Needless to say she was hurt very bad. Once I regained control of the situation, I managed to get her to the emergency room. She was bleeding very badly and in extreme pain. There was a gash approximately 4 to 5 inches long and very deep on the side of her head. Once at the emergency room, they got her stabilized, and the bleeding stopped, and took X-rays. The X-rays revealed that her skull was fractured, and the pieces were pushed inside into her brains cavity. She was imediately transferred to a different hospital where she underwent emergency surgery to have the fragments removed. The lining between the skull and brain was torn, and things were touch and go for a while, buty she made it. Dr's said she is lucky to be alive and doing as good as she is doing. She spent a few days in ICU and then moved to a seperate room, and was discharged this weekend. She has blurred vison and balance problems but the outlook appears to be good, and they do not think any permanent damage is done. Its just going to take time.
Now on to my point on safety. We all have or should have extinguishers, but I bet they are amaong the most abused items around. They get dropped and bumped and put back in the holder etc. It was the drop from what ever vehicle the extinguisher fell from that broke the valve to cylinders connection. All it did was break the torque loose. Subsequesnt handling and the threads propensity to unscrew itself a bit with pressure (according to investigators) led to it finally reaching the point the remaining threads could not hold up against the internal pressure. Nothing was really broken, other than the torque. They haave straight pipe threads, and unturn fairly easy by hand, once the torque is broken, but they can still take a very ong time to leak down to a point that they are empty.
So if you drop a fire extinguisher, please have it checked, as it may be a time bomb waiting to happen. Its also a good idea if the extinguishers you have are over 12 years old to have them inspected by a reputable firm. Finding a so called used but suerviceable extinguisher whose history is unknown is like playing russian roulette, as it was stated to me, by a few individuals that investigated this accident, so the price of having it fully checked is a small sum to pay. Best yet, is let it and call the authorities. This goes for any pressure containing vessel, that you may stumble on. This sort of accident does happen, although not quite as common, its a freak thing, but it still happens from time to time, and we just happened to be the ones to have it occur with. It could have been you just as easy as me, so play it safe...........just because it may look serviceable does not mean it is.
Be safe
PS The wife is doing just fine as of now. Things are getting back to what we consider normal, but for me at my age, unless I get dentures, I will never eat cob on the corn or an apple again like I was able to a week ago. My wife is subject to sieizures and blurred vison, but hopefully that should all go away with time. It could have been a lot worse than it was.
Now on to my point on safety. We all have or should have extinguishers, but I bet they are amaong the most abused items around. They get dropped and bumped and put back in the holder etc. It was the drop from what ever vehicle the extinguisher fell from that broke the valve to cylinders connection. All it did was break the torque loose. Subsequesnt handling and the threads propensity to unscrew itself a bit with pressure (according to investigators) led to it finally reaching the point the remaining threads could not hold up against the internal pressure. Nothing was really broken, other than the torque. They haave straight pipe threads, and unturn fairly easy by hand, once the torque is broken, but they can still take a very ong time to leak down to a point that they are empty.
So if you drop a fire extinguisher, please have it checked, as it may be a time bomb waiting to happen. Its also a good idea if the extinguishers you have are over 12 years old to have them inspected by a reputable firm. Finding a so called used but suerviceable extinguisher whose history is unknown is like playing russian roulette, as it was stated to me, by a few individuals that investigated this accident, so the price of having it fully checked is a small sum to pay. Best yet, is let it and call the authorities. This goes for any pressure containing vessel, that you may stumble on. This sort of accident does happen, although not quite as common, its a freak thing, but it still happens from time to time, and we just happened to be the ones to have it occur with. It could have been you just as easy as me, so play it safe...........just because it may look serviceable does not mean it is.
Be safe
PS The wife is doing just fine as of now. Things are getting back to what we consider normal, but for me at my age, unless I get dentures, I will never eat cob on the corn or an apple again like I was able to a week ago. My wife is subject to sieizures and blurred vison, but hopefully that should all go away with time. It could have been a lot worse than it was.
